The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for data visualization. In particular, the present invention is related to visualizing and interacting with two-dimensional (2D) representations of large data sets that are constrained by the limited size and resolution of interactive displays such as computer monitors, mobile device screens and other presentation devices.
The use of visualization techniques to graphically represent large amounts of correlated data in a 2D space is widely adopted in domains that includes, but are not limited to, geo-locating data on a map, drawing schedules on a time line, plotting flow charts, network topologies and so forth. Although every visual representation maps between raw data and the 2D space, some mappings are more efficient than others. Yet, they all are constrained by the device screen in which they are being displayed. Additionally, the larger the data set is, the bigger the corresponding visual model will be.
While technology improvements and mass production make larger computer displays more affordable, portable networked devices with smaller screen real estate are quickly becoming part of people's daily life and an important way to access data while on the go. For those devices, which includes ultralight laptops, slate computers and mobile phones, 2D visual representations may be inefficient and cumbersome to use as the large models have to be highly compressed to fit the smaller screens, which makes it difficult to read and manipulate the data, requiring excessively repetitive transitions between a whole (and compressed) view of the data and a zoomed (and short-sighted) interactive perspective.